Heaven's BBS | Text

[moonlitknight]

Posted: April 24
From: Zero

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Can Shinki get sick?

[ A seemingly simple question, but one that's been clawing at him for days. The symptoms have become too painful to ignore, so he bites his tongue and seeks answers because unknown to him, his bloodlust has begun to manifest. ]

Comments

[reformedsinner]

There are certain problems that can affect shinki, such as blight, and we can be injured as easily as a normal human. However, I haven't heard of any of us catching a normal illness.

Being dead, I'd assume we are immune.

[moonlitknight]

[ He'd made the same assumption which is why he didn't think it was anything at first, not until the symptoms started to escalate. ]

What are the symptoms of Blight?

[ "We can".... He was a Shinki too. The knowledge eases his suspicion enough to tell him more. ]

The symptoms. They're hunger and thirst.

[reformedsinner]

Localized pain and lack of energy. The primary symptom is a dark mark, often on the back or neck, or at the location of any contact with an ayakashi.

As for hunger and thirst... I'm not sure.

Do eating and drinking help at all?

[moonlitknight]

[ Localized pain, a dark mark on the neck.... He suddenly stills growing cold. ]

.... The blight.

[ He stalls a full minute before sending the second message. ]

Is there a cure for it?

[reformedsinner]

[So that is the problem after all. They really do have to start publicizing the information: some gods seem not to bother to inform their shinki, and some might not even have listened themselves, in the shock of arrival.]

Yes, there is. You need to wash it away with water at a shrine or temple. There should be a fountain for cleaning it off somewhere in your god's temple on the Far Shore.

I recommend not letting it get too bad. It can be quite debilitating.

[moonlitknight]

[ Considering he hasn't stepped foot in his god's temple that's not an option. But the information is more than enough. Someone is already directing him toward some holy water to get rid of the blight on his neck. ]

Debilitating? How?

[ Somehow, he seems to have the answers he seeks. ]

[reformedsinner]

The weakness and pain can become severe. I haven't seen a truly bad case personally, but I've heard that the worst cases of blight can put a shinki at risk of death.

[moonlitknight]

[ Death...]

We're already dead.

[reformedsinner]

We can still be destroyed.

[moonlitknight]

[ His eyes narrow. He suddenly suspected there were many things he didn't know of this place. ]

How?

[reformedsinner]

Being injured too badly for these bodies of ours to survive seems to kill. And then, of course, breaking in our other forms.

It's possible that you can come back from that kind of damage, but the only times I've known it to happen, the second "death" destroyed most of their memories as if they were newly arrived.

In any case, don't assume you're invulnerable.

1/2

[moonlitknight]

We lose our memories? A second time? How is that possible?!

[ He's suddenly very passionate about this line of conversation.]

2/2

[moonlitknight]

[ And then, a sudden thought comes into his head. ]

How many times....

Can we be killed here?

[reformedsinner]

No one knows how we came here in the first place, so far, or why it is that, among the newcomers, shinki who are killed return. I've heard that is not the case with shinki who were created in the normal way.

So I can't answer either of those questions, but it may be a little too dangerous to try to find the limit.

[moonlitknight]

[ His eyes narrow at those last words. With no god to explain things to him, Zero had to cease his own answers and he had no intention of shying away from answers he needed. ]

Dangerous, how?

[reformedsinner]

Dangerous, as in the only way to know how many deaths is too many is to exceed the number.

[moonlitknight]

......

[ His lips think into a grim line. ]

The Shinki here.

How often do they die?

[reformedsinner]

That would depend on how many dangerous situations they encountered.

I think they disappear more often.

[moonlitknight]

[ His fingers tighten on the device. ]

What happens to us when that happens. When we die?

[reformedsinner]

We come right back. I suppose this must be an easygoing kind of Hell after all.

[moonlitknight]

[ A momentary pause, his interest piqued. ]

..... You think this is Hell?

[reformedsinner]

In the sense of an afterlife, certainly.

At least half of us are dead.

[moonlitknight]

And the other half?

[reformedsinner]

Are gods.